Beyond Reality
by OnixMoon
Summary: What is beyond reality? Why exists beyond the realms we know. Attacked at the last second by the D-Reaper, Takato and the Tamers soon discover that something is waiting for them, out in the Void.
1. Chapter 1: Beyond Reaper

Life was not meant to exist here. Everywhere he looked: death. Death in the blood red sky, death in the ugly twisted ground, death in the gelatin air, death by the hand of evil agents, death from above, death from below, death on every side, the world inside the D-Reaper was a sea of death. Crushing his bones, a thousand tons of chaos weighed down his every move. His armor was melting in the sun-like temperatures. Inside Gallantmon, Takato felt his mind being torn apart by that terrible, omnipresent roar. No, life was never meant to come in here, death sat firmly enthroned in this realm. Maybe it would be impossible to knock it off.

Gallantmon planted his foot into the ground and shoved himself high into the air, hoping this time he would make it to the prison in the top that held his friend. But gravity, a fiend long fought, thwarted him again. Why, Takato wondered, why in a place that took all the laws of physics and threw them out the window was his greatest obstacle gravity. This place didn't even seem to obey the laws he had become accustomed to in the Digital World. It set its own laws, the cheating bastard.

"Why does the computer always cheat?" Takato screamed to the crimson heavens.

*But Takato? I don't cheat! Well maybe in Go Fish, but only because Impmon takes all my bread if I loose.*

*Guilmon, you're a Digimon, not a computer.*

*Oh, okay! I won't cheat anymore.*

Takato shook his head, trust his giant lizard goofball to totally throw off the mood. They were in a fight to the death, and he was still thinking about small thing like that? It kind of made him smile.

Takato's thoughts were cut off by the ground rising up to great him again. Pain shot up through Gallantmon's legs as he slammed back into the ground. It was getting worse and worse every time. The biomerged digimon didn't know how many more times they could fail before they disintegrated. Henry had said that Shibumi had written the program on the red card so that they could fight inside the D-Reaper, but for some reason it felt wrong. Maybe Shibumi had made a mistake, but there was no time to figure out what had happened. This was their only chance to get Jeri back – and he was not missing it.

"Alright let's try this again!" The mixed voice of Guilmon and Takato roared. Pulling the bits of strength scattered throughout their body and souls Gallantmon prepared to make another leap. In the back ground they could hear their friends fighting a giant monstrosity of death. With how weak they were feeling Takato didn't think the others had much longer either. Time was running out, precious time, precious energy, precious life slipping away like sand between their fingers. Gallantmon kept roaring, partly in defiance of the world shacking rumble of the D-Reaper partly because it felt good.

Little dots of energy - energy they didn't think they had – gathered up in their armored legs. Maybe they could reach Jeri this time, Gallantmon felt like he could do it. With this new found strength the Holy Knight threw themselves into the sky.

"Why do you try so hard to resist?" Takato flinched when the mutilated voice of Jeri echoed through the sky. The D-Reaper had stolen everything about Jeri… everything but her happiness – that was his fault. "Humans cause pain, humans kill, humans are too chaotic, humans serve no purpose, they do not deserve to exist."

Gallantmon cut through a batter of the D-Reapers agents. "NO! You don't get to decide that! It's you! YOU don't deserve to exist!" Another wave of enemies burst from the vertical column of the Mother D-Reaper. Anger burning bright Gallantmon swatted three of the five away with his lance. Using the last two like stepping stones they propelled themselves farther up the monster. "Humans are more than that! We make mistakes, yes, but we can fix them. Our emotions don't make use weak – all the time. I know some times we cause pain, but there are times when we're happy. I laugh when I'm happy, Jeri laughed when she was happy. Do you know what means to be happy, what it means to have friends?

"You can't know, because you don't have a heart. A heart doesn't make you weak, or chaotic, or wrong. Having a heart makes you strong! Having a heart mean-" But Gallantmon never got to finish telling the D-Reaper what having a heart meant. From the central pillar holding the D-Reaper's most evolved section burst the scaly blue-green figure of the J-Reaper. Fingers interlaced she brought down her hands in an almighty smite of fury. Gallantmon was knocked from the sky like an annoying pest.

Sakuyamon had just dodged the deadly edge of a scythe when she heard a terrifying crack resound through the air. Turning to look at the Mother Reaper where Takato was fighting Rika was just in time to see Gallantmon impacted the ground with a sick thud. Sakuyamon, both the digimon and human halves, felt their heart jump in to her throat. "Gallantmon," the warrior shaman managed to croak, before she too was flung from the sky.

The force of the blow that removed Sakuyamon threw her across the chasm that separated the pillars of the Mother and Cable Reapers. So when she landed - easier than her friend but still painfully – she was not far from the crater that Gallantmon had made. The Holy Knight, honor bound to save his friends or die trying, was pushing himself to one knee. His chest plate was splayed with spider-web cracks, and his helm had taken a distinct concave shape. The dragon-esk visor that had once sat upon the Digimon's brow now hung lopsided, covering one of his stern gold eyes. Battered and bruised, the knight pushed himself from the ground to stare at the monolithic form of the Mother D-Reaper.

"S- Sakuyamon," Gallantmon's voice rung hallow, "are you alright?"

Something in Rika's mind froze stiff. That was a voice she had never heard before, and never expected to hear from her Goggle-headed companion. It was a voice that masked insurmountable pain, through sheer determination he was pushing aside pain, regret, impossibility, and hopelessness. Despite the everything going on around her, Rika paused and wondered how it had come to this. "Yeah," Sakuyamon groaned and pulled herself up, "I'm fine but you're not, Gallantmon."

Gallantmon didn't even have the energy to shake his head, "I've got to do this."

"No you don't Takato, we can pull back, regroup. Come up with some new plan, maybe Henry's dad can fix that card." But Gallantmon wouldn't listen to her pleas. The armor of his right hand transformed itself in to the knight's signature lance, it was hardly a weapon anymore through. It was so damaged it might have been a piece of scrap metal from the junk yard. As Gallantmon righted his shoulders one of the red enameled plate guards snapped off and fell to the ground, "We can't let it win."

Inside Sakuyamon Rika wanted to scream with frustration. Why did everyone she knew have to be so bull headed? Just as she was about to let loose on the Google-head and his pet about how stupid they were being she heard Renamon chuckle. *You are very stubborn too, Rika.* The furry let out of her and she sighed, "Alright, you stupid goggle-head. But under one condition; take my hand."

"Huh?" Takato's voice echoed from Gallantmon's helm, "What?"

"We're going to help you moron!" Rika fumed, really could he be that dense?

"Ahh, okay." Gallantmon clumsily reached out and slid his hand into Sakuyamon's grip. The shaman Digimon frowned. The knights grip was so weak, it almost felt like she was holding up his whole arm. Sakuyamon felt something like sand slipping through her fingers. *Rika* Renamon's voice echoed through the link of their shared mind, *I don't know if what you're thinking of is even possible*

*It's possible, it's just like modification - only different*

*Even if it is possible, I don't know if they can handle it. Look at them…*

*No, if anyone can do it, it's them.*

*Okay* Renamon finally relented. "Are you ready Gallantmon?"

"Ready for what?" If Gallantmon had any visible facial features he might have raised an eyebrow. But Sakuyamon took a deep calming breath, steeling herself for what they were about to do. Keeping her voice calm and steady the shaman answered, "We are going to transfer all our power to you so that-"

"No! You can't do that you might-"

Barely keeping her voice level Sakuyamon snapped over Gallantmon's protests, "I said you could go on one condition. This is it."

The force of Sakuyamon's voice silenced any further protests from Gallantmon. Slowly he tightened his grip on her gloved hand and he nodded. Sakuyamon bowed her head, muttering. At first Gallantmon didn't feel anything, no rush of energy, no blast of wind, nothing. But slowly, as if something were moving through the dim mists of antiquity, rising up from some long forgotten past a wave of nostalgia engulfed the broken holy knight.

Quietly at first the shaman demon Digimon began to chant, "Oh, four winds, guardians of this troubled world, hear my sincere plea. Take all the power of my body, my soul, my mind – I send to him all the power within my core, my heart I now freely commit!" The final words rolled off Sakuyamon's lips as a mighty declaration, cementing her decision before the world the D-Reaper was trying to destroy.

Then, like a star brought down to earth, the link between the two mega-level Digimon began to shin with power. Rika felt the energy of Sakuyamon begin to waver. Like water swirling down a drain the glow of power began to flow through her hand into Gallantmon. The energy seemed to come from everywhere, like air she hadn't noticed it, but now that it was gusting like the wind she could feel all the vast reserves she had had at her disposal. Oddly enough the combined human-Digimon didn't fear for herself, not at first at least. She wondered if Takato and Gallantmon really could handle the power she was giving them. In that second of fear, the flow faltered and slowed, but Rika would not allow it; if there was to be any hope, it had to lie with Takato, he was the only one google-head enough to try the impossible – and impossible was their only chance.

From their end of the link Takato and Guilmon felt a torrent of power rushing in. It was like drinking from a geyser. Over whelming didn't even begin to describe the amount of power that was flowing from Sakuyamon. Inside the Digicore Takato felt the temperature drop. He had never noticed it before, but being inside Gallantmon was warm, like soaking in the bath. Sakuyamon's energy was cool, like a breeze on a summer day – still comfortable, but different.

The two energies were at odds with is Gallantmon's body. They pushed and pulled at his data, threatening to tear it apart and disperse it to the D-reaper. Gallantmon barely felt Sakuyamon's hand slip away through all the internal turmoil. Opening his eyes the hybrid human-Digimon saw her fall, armor-less, naked, defenseless. Something in Takato snapped, it had snapped once before and the percussions had nearly destroyed the digital world, but this time the purpose was different. The fire that began to flow through him was not revenge but it burned in his veins the same. Fueled by his desire to protect his friends, his family, his world, the forces at play in his body began to spiral out of control.

The cool rush of Sakuyamon's gift seemed to burn with their intensity of frozen wrath. Gallantmon's fires of guardianship flared bright enough to melt stone. The force on Takato felt the energies press against him burning and freezing. Then finally through the winds of power Takato heard Guilmon, *Takatomon! I feel like Digivolving!*

GALLENTMON MODE CHANGE

GALLENTMON CRIMSON MODE

Despite the sensation of having all the air ripped out of her lungs, Rika still managed an awed breath as the crimson holy knight materialized before her. When the new form of Gallantmon turned to face her she caught his eye and felt her heart skip a beat, the golden eyes were laced with the same color as his enameled armor. Those kind of eyes seemed to take away ever bit of trouble, they were aegis' in themselves, guardian shields.

"Are you alright, Sakuyamon?"

"Yeah… That took more out of me than I exected." Gallantmon nodded gravely and turned back to face the towering Mother D-Reaper. Something flickered inside his new power, something poetic. On a whim Takato tapped into that shard of power. Words began to flow out of his helm, "Now will all I am, my honor I now commit, to turning this CRIMSON TIDE!" The currents of the sea of energy now contained within his body began to flow into Gallantmon's hands. In one hand formed a deadly sharp sword, his Gallantmon's other hand materialized a glowing duel tipped spear. From these glowing tools a tsunami of scarlet power rushed forth.

When the wave of power broke against the vertical wall of the Mother D-Reapers massive central core the entire world shook. The Crimson Tide shoved itself skyward, melting, corroding, burning the think cables of the D-Reaper. Far across the canyon the wave crashed into the mountainous Cable Reaper. The hellish creature shrieked in pain, no other attack that the Tamers had launched had had anywhere near this effect. Before this they might as well have been throwing water balloons at the abomination. The mega-level Digimon had only felt a flash of warmth wash through them before the terrible screams of the Cable Reaper.

As the ripples of his initial attack began to fade Gallantmon flexed his new found wings. "I'm off!" Launching himself into the sky Gallantmon immediately felt the difference between his two forms. Previously he felt gravity pulling back from the moment his feet left the ground. Here, now, gravity held no power over him, he was free to fly! "You pitiful creatures!" Jeri's chopped up voice cut through Takato's elation, "You all will be eliminated!"

"No," For all the emotions swelling inside of them, Takato thought their voice was amazing calm, "We will survive. With the hearts of my beloved friends behind me, pushing me forward, I will cut you from this world with this CARMINE BLADE!" The hordes of the D-Reaper didn't even have time to fully materialize before they were cut to ribbons by Gallantmon's red, glowing sword. Like crimson lightning the Gallantmon's blade slid through the Agents of the D-Reaper with no resistance. It was like swinging the sword through air.

Even with his new power the mega-level Digimon was out classed in one important aspect: number. The Mother seemed to have no limit to the amount of obstacles she could throw out. For every Agent the holy knight destroyed the Mother had time to create five more. It was like trying to drink all the water in the ocean. They kept coming, rushing in to meet their doom on the tip of Gallantmon's deadly sword. But the D-Reaper could afford a war of attrition. For every moment he was delayed, Takato felt more and more of his strength seeping away. The air in this place was toxic, it pulled the life out off all who breathed it. While Gallantmon still had energy to burn, there were others, like the depleted digimon-girl below him that had no time left.

"Humans are weak! They attempt things that are impossible for them, they try to do things that cannot be done. In the end they always fail, leaving nothing but pain and destruction in their wake. It is humanities destiny to fail! It is inescapable! You may try a thousand times, but what is impossible is impossible – what is destine is destine – what is fated is fated. Every venture is failed from the start, you cannot succeed!" The D-Reaper mocked from every side. Contrary to their intent the words didn't dishearten Gallantmon. Instead the fires inside of him burned brighter.

"NO! YOU ARE WRONG!" Takato felt the his fury push more energy back into his wings. Suddenly he was beyond the reach of the swarms of the D-Reaper's Agents. He was flying too fast for them to reach him. "We can choose our own destiny. We are not doomed to fail! If we never succeeded, how did we get to where we are? How have we survived this long? Humanity is not a failure! Our destiny is made by the decisions we make; our choices determine the type of life we live – if we succeed or fail. If we try heard enough we will succeed! And I will succeed at destroying you!"

Gallantmon was now level with the coral colored sphere of the D-Reaper's cornel. The six eyes set deep in the mask-like structure that capped the Mother focused on Takato. Then suddenly, as if some super natural creature had dropped her into reality at its pleasure, the J-Reaper was blocking the Gallantmon's view of his final goal. "Then you choose," she screamed with her mangled voice, "to die first!" The mega-level digimon didn't even see her move, but the force behind her fist was enough to tell him that she was moving very, very fast.

Were his helm made of normal metal (aside from being corroded to oblivion at this point) the J-Reaper's punch would have been enough to turn his face into a bloody crater. Gallantmon's head was protected from become concave, but he was still thrown back quite always. The next fist was planted squarely in the knights breast plate, the one following that was marked for his chin. The J-Repaer, her scaly blue skin hardly resembling Jeri at this point, was moving too fast for the eye to see. Gallantmon had no time to recover from the blows, by the time he could register the pain of the first attack, its follow up was already bearing down on him.

Instinct from Gallantmon's digital half moved his arm to block a blow aimed for the left side of his head. A miracle in itself Gallantmon caught the J-Reapers super-powered fist before it sent him to the ground. "Not, first." Gallantmon croaked, "You will be first." With all the physical strength he could muster in that instant, Takato and Guilmon flung the D-Reaper's most powerful agent away. She slammed against the cornel, when she pushed herself away Gallantmon could see a thin crack marring the previously impervious shell.

The J-Reaper was closing fast, moving so fast she was just a blue blur she rushed Gallantmon. Where the idea came from Takato couldn't say, he drew his spear back. For one second, an infinitesimal moment of time stretched beyond its limits, he was still. The potential for movement burned with in him, filling ever seam of his armor was the capacity for violent, powerful movement, but in that second the perfect balance and tension pulling at him from every direction held him still. Like a light turned on, a switch in reality so quick and simple that he might not have noticed it but for that one moment of total stillness, he was fulfilling that potential, he was in motion.

The tip of his mighty spear cut past his ear leaving behind a quiet hiss as the air moved back to fill the space the spear had once been. True to his word, J-Reaper was the first to feel Grugnir's deadly sting. It's thirst for justice unquenched the mighty spear cut straight through the scaly hid of the J-Reaper and continued on its fated path toward the kernel undeterred.

From below Sakuyamon watched the spear come in contact with hereto hidden shields protecting the kernel. Colliding in a Technicolor explosion of light and sound the attack dug its way through octagon after octagon of layered shielding. When the scrapping and scratching reached a deafening point and the light and colors burned to look at, the D-Reaper's defenses shatter like panes of sugar-glass. The spear shot forward as if it had never stopped and plunged through the crack made by the body of the J-Reaper. The useless carcass of the J-Reaper fell from the sky, landing in the valley between the defeated Mother and the squirming Cable Reaper.

The opening in the kernel wasn't big enough for Gallantmon to slip through, but through the fissure Takato could see a girl – Jeri – trussed up by crimson cables. Stuck, splitting the red cables that tied her wrists, was Gallantmon's shining spear.


	2. Chapter 2: Beyond Repair

Mitsuo Yamaki looked out the window at the rose colored mass that covered what had once been Shinjuku. He scowled. As the well know proverb had warned, their best plan had lasted only until the first arrow had been loosed. While not exactly a disaster, Operation Doodlebug had been… complicated to say the least. What should have been a relatively safe – as safe as jumping head long into what amounted to a planet eater – mission had wound up with three comatose teenagers laying on beds in a make-shift hospital. As soon as they had receive word of injured from the Tamers – the shy one with the small pink digimon – they had summoned doctors. While the whole country was still in a state of panic, doctors were hard to get, but the word of the Hypnos, a formally secret organization that had been given "all powers necessary to handle the situation at hand" had been enough to get three highly respected physicians on the scene.

All powers necessary, Yamaki pondered the phrasing, right now it seemed that the powers needed to deal with the situation at hand were solely divine. The D-Reaper was retreating, if slowly, much slower than their models had predicted. It was all supposed to be over, over in a few short hours. The tamer's digimon would have disappeared less than ten hours after Doodlebug had initiated. If everything had gone as planed… if everything had gone as planed Takato Matsuki, Rika Nonaka, and Jeri Kato would not be laid out on the beds behind him.

"So, run this past me again," the director of Hypnos turned away from the window to face Dr. Yoseda, the lead doctor for Hypnos Base, "what happen to Takato?"

"Well, that's just it. If he were dead we could perform an autopsy on him and find out. But as he is still living, we can't get as clear a picture as we would like. The simple fact we _don't _know for sure." Yamaki paused to wonder why the first doctor the government had seen fit to contact was certified both as a physician and a mortician. There was probably some message there in that round about bureaucratic way of communication. Dr. Yosada himself was almost as alive as the patients he cared for, pasty skin, and disturbingly small pupils made the man seem like something from a B-grade zombie film. But, Yamaki gestured for him to continue.

"Are you familiar with the term 'mind rape?"

"Psychological torture, right?"

"Usually yes, but I was thinking more in the physical sense."

Dr. Yoseda bounced off the table he had been sitting on and pulled out several large color photo prints from a manila envelope. Unfortunately the pictures had absolutely no aesthetic value to them what so ever. Printed in graphic detail (Yamaki didn't remember blood being that red before) were pictures of the circle of skin and muscle that had been gouged out of Takato's neck. "You see that paler pink line here," Yoseda pointed to a small part of image with the tip of his little finger, "That's they boy's spinal column. The whole actually curves up from there into the base of the skull and exposes the brain stem. Around the edge of the wound, you see these burns? They're electrical burns and they only get worse as they get deeper. From what I can guess, some kind of cable – about three and a half centimeters in diameter – dug in to his neck," Dr. Yoseda hooked his pinky up like the finger itself was drilling through the boy's flesh, "and burrowed its way up until it reached the brain stem. What it did after that… well, we can't know without an invasive observation that would end up killing the boy. Anyway, my guess is – from what I have read in your briefs about that thing" Yoseda jerked his head to indicate the abomination outside the window. "is that the cable attached itself to the brain stem and proceeded to administer an electric shock directly to Mr. Matsuki's brain." Yamaki looked down at the sketch the doctor had scribbled out on the back of the print. Covering the base of a crudely drawn head, right where the neck met the skull, Yoseda had vigorously slashed an 'X'.

"What about Miss. Nonaka?"

"Who?"

"The girl with the red hair in the middle bed."

"Oh, her." Yamaki couldn't tell if it was a trick of the light, but Dr. Yoseda's eyes seemed to dull even further when Yamaki had changed the subject. "She'll be fine," he waved Yamaki off, "The symptoms appear identical to long term malnutrition. She just resting until the IV drip can restore her energy supplies. If she eats well she'll be back to normal in a couple weeks."

"And-"

"Physically the girl at the end is fine. She's in better condition that could be expected from your normal teenager, astounding for someone who has been trapped in a trans-dimensional abomination for the past month. Why she isn't waking up" He paused and tapped his temple, "is all in her own head."

The doctor walked over to the bed where Takato was lying and opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by Yamaki's radio crackling to life. "Yamaki?"

"This is Yamaki, what is it Riley?"

"The general want to talk with you. Apparently one of the patrols found something."

Yamaki was already walking out the door, ignoring the creepy doctor calling after him. "What did the find?"

"I don't know! He won't talk to me, says that it needs to go straight to you."

"Tell him he can tell it to you, or he tell it to me as he walks out of his command."

"Uh, he heard you sir."

"Good!"

The military had been put off since command had been switched over to Hypnos. Arguably Hypnos had accomplished more the military had – even if it was at a rate less than they had believed. Doodlebug _was _working, if slowly. All the military had managed to do was annoy the gelatinous mass of chaos, Hypnos had numbers, definite meters on the map. The D-Reaper was on the retreat thanks to Doodlebug! But the military wouldn't see success when it happened. They demanded the immediate numbers of victory – the kind that Hypnos had provided when proposing Doodlebug. What it amounted to was a bunch of small men demanding power, that's all it ever amounted to.

The elevator opened to reveal what had once been a posh atrium of the office building. Desks, computers, and the remains of ever computer mainframe they could salvage from Shinjuku had taken over the second floor looking down of the scuttle of people running around the ground floor trying desperately to refigure the models for Doodlebug – home base for the attack on the D-Reaper. Stepping out from the elevator Yamaki walked over to the desk covered with a large map of the Shinjuku area. Streaks of red tap marked out the current extent of the D-Reaper. Over the past couple days the map had started to look like the rings on a gnarled old tree, slowly marking the regression of the chaos. Standing over the map, engaged in a loud, heated discussion were his senior-most operator and General Tokugawa, Shuto of the Japanese Self-Defense force.

"Yamaki! What is the meaning of this? Are your subordinates in the habit of giving orders without your concent?" The General barked as Yamaki approached the table. Yamaki glanced at Riley briefly, "Not until recently. What is the issue, General."

"She told us to stay away from it! We have no idea what it is, it could be some know weapon for all we know and she tells us to back away! What are you going to do, have a couple of kids go after it again! We all saw how well that turned out!"

"What is 'it,' General? I can't reprimand my subordinate if I don't know what it is she ordered you to say back from." Unconsciously Yamaki's fingers had wrapped around the empty lighter in his pocket.

"The 7:45 patrol discovered something strange on the north side of the Chaos Zone. I recommend that we attack it-"

Yamaki cut off the General before he could start calling for missiles and warheads, "What kind of 'strange thing,' General? Use your words." Yamaki knew it wasn't helpful to antagonize the man, but he wasn't being exactly helpful either.

"Well, ahh." The General blinked. Looking down at the map General Tokugawa pointed at section of Northern Shinjuku, "around here the patrol that departed at 7:45 observed an portion of Chaos Zone that had not progressed since yesterdays 16:30 patrol."

Yamaki raised an eyebrow and glanced over at Riley, "Have you-"

"I've ordered a satellite to investigate, but we're having trouble contacting any satellite after the D-Reaper attacked the satellite grid to reconnect all of its separate instances. However we have managed to retro fit one of the military cameras with the necessary equipment, and we have a team working on creating a case to protect the camera from the D-Reaper's EM field."

"Good, how long?"

"If you sent the camera out now we could get you a picture from about a three hundred meters in about an hour. The casings might take four or five hours however, so that's the best we can get you."

"Send it out, I want to have an idea of what we're dealing with before" Yamaki shot a pointed look at the General, "we start attacking anything."

Riley turned and headed toward the unmoving escalators to relay the directors orders. "Yamaki!" slamming his fist against the table the Shuto threatened to upset the table, "Are you just going to let that- that- thing" He pointed north, in the general direction of the D-Reaper's Chaos Zone, "sit there and come up with some new way to kill us all! We need to strike pre-emptily! You know what it's doing, you know that it is some egg with a brand new monster inside. We need to crush the egg, not just sit here and watch it hatch."

"General, I thank you for your opinion, but it just as much could be an anomaly, something harmless, or a bomb waiting to be triggered. I prefer not any more surprises than I can handle." Yamaki reached under the table and retrieved a small stone to place it on a table, "keep an observation team on the anomaly around the clock, they're to check back here every hour to give a report and receive orders. Since the D-Reaper is interfering with radio signals they are going to need to send back a physical person – at least close enough so that we can get into radio contact with them. When, and if we determine that the anomaly is dangerous we will decide on the appropriate course of action."

"And who decides that?"

"We do."

Yamaki turned away and left the man standing alone at the table.

Digimon: Beyond Reality

Henry dropped onto the small couch and let out a heavy sigh. His legs burned with hollow exhaustion. His eyelids cried for rest. "Henry, I'm pooped." Terriermon crawled up onto his tamer's lap and collapsed. "Yeah, me too, buddy."

Since Doodlebug the two of them had been in and out of CAT scans and interrogation rooms. From the way that 'Babble' and his dad's other friends had looked they were puzzled. Henry still wasn't sure about what that meant. Obviously it hadn't worked right, so what else could have happened? Could there be some kind of side effect for Terriermon, or him? They had been running a program meant to bend the very fabric of reality using their own body as a conduit.

"Henry, is this what finals feels like?"

"No. Finals are worse than this."

"Then boy am I glad I'm a digimon, I'd hate to have to do this every year!"

"Hey, don't forget mid-terms."

"Gaaa" Terriermon pounded his head against Henry's need, "How do you stand it."

"I have tough skin."

"Yeah, frik'n steel to handle your school!"

Henry stopped, "How did we get on this subject again?"

"I don't know, I'm tired."

"Ditto."

"Whoa, Déjà vu."

Henry touched his knuckles against his partners head half-heartedly, "Terriermon, pipe down and rest." But he got no response, his bunny-dog friend was already asleep on his knee. Henry agreed, he could feel the cost of the past few days building up, the debt he had accumulated in the late night scan sessions weren't being offset by nearly enough sleep, food, or water. A smile tugged at the corner of Henry's lips as he ran his hand against the short fur of his partner. For a moment everything felt right. It felt like a waking dream of perfection, him, his best friend, and a moment of silence and peace. This, Henry was sure, was how everything was meant to be. Time slowed down. The bond between the boy and his Digimon seemed to shimmer in the air. Everything was perfect.

Henry let the silence extend out. The hustle of Home Base faded away. The world disappeared when he closed his eyes. Things were sliding toward enveloping darkness when he was disturbed by the presence of someone else. Henry reluctantly pried his eyes open and, with enough effort to lift a car, he could see again. Sitting across from him on the twin of his own grey couch sat a boy talking to his floating pink blob. They hadn't notice Henry's state of consciousness yet and continued to whisper to each other quietly. Once spoke in hushed tone, the other in an unintelligible series of muted chips and squeaks. "Hey Kenta." Henry's face arranged itself into a tired grin.

"Hey Henry, how are you, uhh… You know…" Kenta, ever meek tried hard to avoid naming the real question, but Henry heard it anyway: 'is that juggernaut thing going to kill you?' Henry shook his head in answer, "They say I'll like to have kids of my own - though if they're anything like Rika or Takato, I don't want any."

Kenta's grim face cracked, "That's good."

"What? That I don't want kids like Rika or Takato?" Henry wondered if it was just the lack of sleep or if Terriermon was rubbing off on him.

"No, I mean that you're okay, you know." Kenta shook his head vigorously trying to apologize.

"It's okay, Kenta. I know what you meant." A moment of passed, then another moment. Henry considered closing his eyes again. If all went well he could grab ten more minutes of sleep before somebody needed him or Terriermon. He was just about to loosen the ropes and let his eyes slid close when something struck him as odd, "Kenta, where's Kazu?"

"Umm, I don't know. Yamaki talked with him a little while ago, and I haven't seen him since. I think maybe he went out on a patrol. He's feeling kind of useless right now."

Henry hadn't given it much thought, but Henry realized that the normally boisterous Kazu had been more subdued since Operation Doodlebug. He didn't have a Digimon that could digivole even to ultimate level, so he hadn't been called to help with out with the Operation. He and Kenta had come in at the last moment, and probably saved the four of them from the corrosive effects of the Chaos, but Henry could see how Kazu could feel a bit useless. "I see." Henry paused, letting his tired mind recover from the blast of use, "What about you? Did you want to fight more?"

"No, we did what we could, and we're fine with that. Right guy?" Marineangemon emitted a stream of bobbles and squawks as he nuzzed against his Tamer's cheek. Henry nodded. Kenta was a very different person when he wasn't standing in the shadows of Kazu. He was kinder and less annoying, but there was a shyness about him that made Henry wonder what the boy was really thinking. Kenta and Marineangemon, despite what Kazu claimed, had been the ones that had really saved them after Doodlebug. The giant Kahuna Wave bubbles had borne them out of the D-Reaper as is started draining back into the Digital World. Guardromon had done the heavy lifting, to be sure, (Henry could not imagine Kenta even toughing Rika, or Marineangamon trying to lift Takato) but… A question struck Henry, "Hey Kenta, do you know what happened to Takato?"

Kenta froze. Froze and stared into nothing, or at something standing beyond the present time. Kenta shook himself free of the memory, "No, when I got there, everything was over. He was on the floor and… blood was everywhere. So much blood."

"So, you don't-" Kenta shook his head violently cutting off Henry's question. For a long moment nothing was said. Without warning Kenta stood up, "Well I'd better look for Kazu. See ya' Henry." Henry watched to the be-speckled boy walk away from the small grouping of couches.

Digimon Tamers: Beyond Reality

"Thank you for calling Takato's brain. No one can answer your call right now , please leave a message at the tone and we will get back to you as soon as our faculties return." The was a long moment where all Takato could hear over the metaphysical line was static, then a high pitch squeal "RUN FOR IT! The fluff matrices are overloaded prepare for total fluffy-annihilation!"

"What the hell is going on inside my brain?" Takato looked at the receiver of the metaphysical phone. Hanging up the phone the hopefully-not-dead boy walked out of the metaphysical phone booth out in to street. "More importantly, what the hell is going on with me?"


End file.
